Duprey Meryl

You can count my two stars as a 2.5. This was a middling summer disaster movie, and I had plenty of quibbles. I hated the silly pretense of how they lose the kid so much that it put me off for the rest of the film. And I'm really sick of these apocalyptic endings where a select few "regular people" are chosen by lottery for the bunkers. Seriously? You think Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are going to scoot over for me and you? Dream on, sucka. The half-star bump is for some passable impact debris and shockwaves, good enough to send me back to the stove for another bowl of popcorn. If you have nothing else to watch, this will suffice I guess.

A really emotionally compelling examination of a man with a lifetime to bear and all of the fears and regrets that come with that weight. The suspense of the film is whether or not Tomasso can transcend this weight or ultimately sink. Dafoe is the perfect actor for this role--he's older, wiser and innate in his ability to portray Tomasso's fragility. And the secondary roles in the movie are apt as well. I was mystified by the last scene's reference to Sophia Loren in It Happened in Naples. Is Farrera commenting on American imperialism with Dafoe's relationship as an allegory? Or is the child a kind of refugee in the end?